CapeTalk Highlights

The famous street in Cape Town, Adderley Street is the first street to get an installation of the first isabelo smart bench.

Isabelo is a wi-fi enabled bench which provides free wi-fi in public spaces in African cities. The bench also has four cellphone charging ports and is solar powered.

CapeTalk’s John Maytham spoke to Louise Meek, Managing Director of Isabelo about the Isabelo initiative.

Listen to the full conversation on The John Maytham Show:

The whole idea was to design a product specifically for African cities and create safe public spaces where anyone could walk up to the bench plug in their cellphone, charge up their battery while connecting to the internet

— Louise Meek, Managing Director of Isabelo

It is all about democratising access to the internet

— Louise Meek, Managing Director of Isabelo

The idea is to draw people closer into a public space, get them to sit down next to each other and create wonderful social interactions around the bench